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A group of people from different campus organizations and several street organizations protested against the university’s president Jeanette M. Nu\u00f1ez, and the association of the campus’ police with ICE, in front of the Graham Center at Florida International University.<\/p>\n
Pedro Portal<\/p>\n
pportal@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
Florida International University President Jeanette Nu\u00f1ez is being sued for bringing conduct charges against students in a racist group chat \u2014 and protested on campus for not doing enough.<\/p>\n
None of the involved students have faced suspension or expulsion since the slur-filled chats came to light five weeks ago and Nu\u00f1ez announced stiff punishments were on the table. The university has been investigating the chats since last fall, according to a federal First Amendment lawsuit filed by four of the students facing conduct charges.<\/p>\n
For at least one of the students, an attorney for FIU told a federal judge a hearing was \u201clikely to be held in mid-April\u201d to determine the consequences for the charges, according to court records. But that hearing has not yet been scheduled, the students\u2019 attorney told the Herald.<\/p>\n
The drawn-out disciplinary procedure is enraging some students on campus who say racism is being treated with leniency, even as Nu\u00f1ez, Florida\u2019s former Republican lieutenant governor, says her efforts to punish the chat participants show that \u201cthis is not what FIU stands for.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in a situation where FIU is directly enabling racism, fascism, in a full form and there\u2019s no accountability,\u201d FIU student Carlton Daley told the Miami Herald during a protest he organized against Nu\u00f1ez this week.<\/p>\n
![\"Carlton](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_109FIUProtest00NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"MIA_109FIUProtest00NEWPPP.JPG\\"")
Carlton Daley (center), co-president of FIU’s Young Democratic Socialists of America, was among a group of people from different campus organizations and several street organizations protested against the university’s president Jeanette M. Nu\u00f1ez, and the association of the campus’ police with ICE, on April 7, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n
FIU declined to comment, but has previously defended their process<\/a> as a protection of students\u2019 First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s handling of the fallout is earning her critics across the ideological spectrum \u2014 and it\u2019s a likely precursor to the free-speech battles to come on Florida campuses now that a new state law taking effect in July permits immediately expelling students who promote certain outside groups.<\/p>\n Gov. Ron DeSantis, who pushed FIU\u2019s Board of Trustees to install Nu\u00f1ez as university president, signed a law this week giving state agencies the power to immediately oust students who\u2019ve promoted groups the state deems as \u201cterrorist\u201d organizations. The law gives the state the unusual power to make these designations and punish organizations, an authority historically limited to the federal government.<\/p>\n DeSantis said this week he\u2019s working to designate the Muslim civil-rights group Council on American-Islamic Relations as a terrorist organization using his new power, and he\u2019s widely believed to have started pursuing the law to target students protesting Israeli attacks on Gaza.<\/p>\n Students like Daley told the Herald there\u2019s a double standard toward free speech on campus \u2014 and that other students\u2019 rights have already been infringed upon in crackdowns on protestors.<\/p>\n He pointed to the six students who were sent code of conduct charges this week after they declined to give their names to police officers after a March protest against the school\u2019s partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Students stood up silently during a forum Nu\u00f1ez was holding wearing shirts that read \u201cICE OFF FIU.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re so driven and so decided to quell organized movements, but when faced with a real threat of racist people talking [in the group chats] about potentially killing Black people \u2014 they didn\u2019t say Black people, they said the n word \u2014 they are so haphazard about getting rid of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Nu\u00f1ez is facing criticism from multiple angles.<\/p>\n Attorney and far-right politician Anthony Sabatini is spearheading the group chat participants\u2019 First Amendment case. He\u2019s also representing the University of Florida\u2019s College Republicans in a separate lawsuit after the university suspended the club after photos emerged of a member appearing to do a Heil Hitler salute.<\/p>\n In the FIU case, he\u2019s arguing to Miami District Court Chief Judge Cecilia Altonaga that any action or disciplinary hearings against students over group chat messages violates their First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n According to Sabatini, the publicly announced disciplinary process in the wake of widespread backlash to the chats seemed to screech to a halt after four students sued the school. The university declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.<\/p>\n Lawsuit filings show the former Miami-Dade GOP Secretary Abel Carvajal was charged on March 11 with \u201cassisting\u201d in aiding, promoting, concealing or facilitating Student Code of Conduct violations from his role in creating the chat.<\/p>\n Former College Republicans recruitment chairman Dariel Gonzalez was issued a \u201cno contact\u201d directive from the Office of Civil Rights, barring him from communicating with a woman he discussed in the chat, according to the lawsuit. It was not immediately clear from the lawsuit what additional charges he faced.<\/p>\n Sabatini is representing two additional students who have been charged with violating the school\u2019s student code of conduct based on separate chat logs that have not previously been reported.<\/p>\n Those chat logs, included the lawsuit filings, show Gonzalez saying \u201cNazis did it and it worked out great. Amped them up with amphetamines and sent them to rape,\u201d in a conversation about people using drugs in the military, and wrote \u201cBlitzkrieg was based as f\u2013k,\u201d referencing a Nazi military strategy. He did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n One student, Ethan Ratchkauskas, is accused by the school of posting in a group chat about how someone would have to \u201cswiss cheese the professor,\u201d later clarifying that meant \u201cputting holes in them via means of firearm.\u201d He declined to comment through his lawyer.<\/p>\n Sabatini is arguing in federal court that the comments were made in a \u201chumorous and hyperbolic context,\u201d and that they have free speech protections to say such things. The case is ongoing; the judge has not yet ruled on the merits of his argument.<\/p>\n A Republican Party reckoning<\/p>\n Nu\u00f1ez, a former state lawmaker, has been the school\u2019s top administrator since last year. After the Herald and other media reported on the racist group chat made up primarily of conservative FIU students, Nu\u00f1ez said the school \u201cwill not tolerate violence, hate, discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n The response was praised by Republican politicians, who widely denounced the content of the chats, which was filled with slurs for Black, Jewish and gay people and included graphic calls for violence against Black people.<\/p>\n READ MORE: \u2018Nazi heaven\u2019: Inside Miami campus Republicans\u2019 racist group chat<\/a><\/p>\n Group chat participants included then-leaders in the College Republicans and Turning Point USA chapters on campus and then Miami-Dade County GOP secretary.<\/p>\n While no FIU students have been suspended, according to a statement from President Madeline Pumariega, Miami-Dade College \u201cdismissed\u201d student William Bejerano, who made the most violent comments in the chat leaked last month. He was also barred<\/a> from entering FIU\u2019s campus, according to Nu\u00f1ez.<\/p>\n On campus this week, a wide range of students remained skeptical of Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s handling of the incident.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would have appreciated if her response to it was not necessarily harsher, but more transparent, and if she communicated with us more about what exactly was going to happen regarding the situation beyond just that it\u2019s under investigation,\u201d said Joshua Espinoza, who is president of FIU\u2019s College Libertarians.<\/p>\n FIU sociology professor Zachary Levenson said the university has had a disproportionate reaction to some student-led protests depending on which political party their cause aligns with.<\/p>\n In the aftermath of last month\u2019s ICE protest, FIU administration swiftly circulated a survey asking students how colleges should \u201chandle students who disrupt invited speakers,\u201d according to Levenson and screenshots of the survey. The survey included options for punishments like requiring the student to pay a fine or suspending the student for 30 days.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re having students vote on punishment like this is some kind of screwed up reality show,\u201d Levenson said.<\/p>\n FIU student Eric Franzblau, who attended another campus protest against Nu\u00f1ez this week, said some of the questions in the student survey stood out as suspicious. He believes the school is trying to manufacture a negative response toward certain student groups \u2014 especially those on the left \u2014 protesting on campus.<\/p>\n Freshman marine biology student Jordan Fernandez was also part of a group of about 40 students chanting \u201cshame\u201d at Nu\u00f1ez outside of a Board of Trustees meeting this week. The protest was over a wide scope of actions by FIU, primarily focused on the school\u2019s partnership with ICE. He wants to see the students involved in the group chats expelled.<\/p>\n The administration doesn\u2019t \u201chear our voices, they don\u2019t hear our fears that we have. I know many people who live in fear because of these group chat messages existing,\u201d Fernandez said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey should not be allowed to walk onto a campus that harbors so many diverse people, that\u2019s meant to be a safe haven.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"FIU](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_04NUNEZFIUFORUM.jpeg\" "\\"MIA_04NUNEZFIUFORUM\\"")
FIU President Jeanette Nu\u00f1ez Photo by Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com Lawsuit threats<\/p>\n![\"Philosophy\/International](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_101FIUProtest00NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"MIA_101FIUProtest00NEWPPP.JPG\\"")
FIU student Michael Andrillon protested against the university’s President Jeanette M. Nu\u00f1ez in front of the Graham Center. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n